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Friday, December 27, 2013

How about
those legendary European Champions Cup winners? Were they as superior and unbeatable as we
now think they were? This time I take a look at the match statistics of the first 36
champions of Europe (1956-1991), before the UEFA decided a plain and honest knock-out
tournament wasn’t commercially interesting enough.

The lucky winners

Steaua Bucuresti showing the cup to their home crowd

Let’s start
with the champions that were very lucky to win the cup and didn’t make a big
impression, at least not outside of their own country. Statistically PSV Eindhoven (1987-88)
is the worst Champions’ champion of all. PSV only slipped through the quarter and
semifinals on away-goals. And on top of that, they couldn’t win the final in
120 minutes. PSV drew their last five matches of the tournament, and only
scored nine goals in nine matches. Two years later, AC Milan also managed just
nine goals, but conceded only two. PSV conceded five.The other underachiever in
this comparison is Steaua Bucuresti, champions of 1985-86. They also collected
just eleven points from their nine matches, also conceded five goals, but at
least scored thirteen times.

Here’s the
list from the worst champion down to number 6:

(Rules: two
point for a victory, one for a draw, points given after 90 minutes)

Rank

Club + year

Played

Won

Draw

Lost

Points

Goals

% Points

36

PSV Eindhoven (88)

9

3

5

1

11

9-5

61,1

35

Steaua Bucuresti (86)

9

4

3

2

11

13-5

61,1

34

AC Milan (69)

7

4

1

2

9

12-5

64,2

33

Benfica (62)

7

4

1

2

9

22-11

64,2

32

Bayern München (74)

10

5

3

2

13

25-15

65,0

31

AC Milan (90)

9

5

2

2

12

9-2

66,6

30

Manchester United (68)

9

4

4

1

12

13-6

66,6

29

Real Madrid (66)

9

5

2

2

12

21-10

66,6

28

Feyenoord (70)

9

5

2

2

12

23-5

66,6

27

Real Madrid (59)

7

4

2

1

10

14-4

71,4

26

Internazionale (65)

7

5

0

2

10

15-5

71,4

25

Liverpool (78)

7

5

0

2

10

17-7

71,4

24

Real Madrid (56)

7

5

0

2

10

20-10

71,4

23

Real Madrid (58)

7

4

2

1

10

24-7

71,4

22

Nottingham Forest (80)

9

6

1

2

13

13-5

72,2

21

Aston Villa (82)

9

6

2

1

14

13-2

77,7

20

Hamburger SV (83)

9

6

2

1

14

16-5

77,7

19

Ajax (71)

9

6

2

1

14

17-5

77,7

18

Juventus (85)

9

7

0

2

14

19-6

77,7

17

Bayern München (76)

9

6

2

1

14

19-4

77,7

16

AC Milan (89)

9

5

4

0

14

20-5

77,7

15

AC Milan (63)

9

7

0

2

14

33-6

77,7

14

Liverpool (77)

9

7

0

2

14

22-5

77,7

13

Bayern München (75)

7

5

1

1

11

11-4

78,5

12

Real Madrid (57)

8

6

1

1

15

20-10

81,2

11

Nottingham Forest (79)

9

6

3

0

15

19-7

83,3

10

Celtic (67)

9

7

1

1

15

18-5

83,3

9

Red Star Belgrade (91)

9

6

3

0

15

20-5

83,3

8

FC Porto (87

9

7

1

1

15

21-5

83,3

7

Benfica (61)

9

7

1

1

15

26-9

83,3

6

Liverpool (81)

9

6

3

0

15

24-4

83,3

The Top 5 Best teams

Now, let’s
focus on the big teams, starting with the ones that won the Cup two or three times
in a row. Statistically, AC Milan (winner 1989 and 1990), Nottingham Forest
(1979 and 1980), Bayern München (1974, 1975 and 1976) and Liverpool (1977 and
1978), were champions with just an average record. Even the first four wins of Real
Madrid were mediocre, only the fifth cup in 1960 put them among the best five wins
ever. Here’s the final countdown, from number 5 to number 1.

5 Ajax (Netherlands), 1972-73

Ajax's third win in 1973 might be remembered as the one with a boring final against Juventus. But the road to Belgrade was very convincing:
thrashing Bayern Munchen 4-0 in the quarter final (French newspaper l’Equipe
voted this match the best match in the history of the European Cup in 2005) and
winning home and away against Real Madrid in the semis. This season Ajax could have won all
seven matches (they were given a bye as Cup holders for the first round). But
after winning, as said, at home 4-0 to Bayern München (two goals by Arie Haan,
one by Gerrie Mühren and one by Johan Cruijff, with Bayern-goalie Sepp Maier
making three big mistakes), it was hard for the boys from Amsterdam to take the
return matches two weeks later too serious. And so they didn’t. After seven
minutes Piet Keizer scored 0-1, but an own goal by Ruud Krol (29th
minute) and a goal by Gerd Müller (37th minute) gave Bayern München
a consolation win. So Ajax collected twelve points in seven matches, scored
fifteen goals and conceided only four.

Ajax (73)

7

6

0

1

12

15-4

85,7%

4 Real Madrid (Spain), 1959-60

Di Stefano scoring at Hampden Park

Real Madrid
won the first four European Champions Cup, but not with such domination as we are willing to believe now. In fact, in 1955-56, they lost 3-0 in the second leg of the quarter
final to Partizan Belgrade, after winning 4-0 at home. This is the biggest defeat ever of a Cup winner in
these 36 years. The 1959-60 season however, Alfredo di Stefano (8 goals) and
Ferenc Puskas (12 goals) were unstoppable. Madrid lost one match in this
campaign, 3-2 against OGC Nice, after a 2-0 lead. The other five matches to the
final were easy wins: 7-0 and 5-2 against Jeunesse d’Esch from
Luxembourg, 4-0 in the return against OGC Nice, and 3-1 away and at home
against their toughest rival, Barcelona. The final at Hampden Park, Glasgow, on
May 18, probably was the most entertaining final ever. An attendance of 127,621
spectators saw Real Madrid winning 7-3 against Eintracht Frankfurt. Di Stefano
scored the first two and the last one, Puskas the four goals in between.

Real Madrid (60)

7

6

0

1

12

32-10

85,7%

3. Ajax (Netherlands), 1971-72

Ajax before their semi final against Benfica

The three
best ever European Champions Cup winners all played nine matches, of which they
won seven and didn’t lose any. So basically I consider all three of them as the
best winners ever. The ranking here is based on goal difference. This way claims number three. With two of their three wins in the Top 5, Ajax in the early seventies probably is the best European
club team ever. Ajax started with a 2-0 against Dinamo Dresden, but couln’t
avoid a draw in the return match (0-0). After
that, Olympique Marseille was easily beaten, 2-1 away and 4-1 at home. With
impressive wins against Arsenal, 2-1 and 1-0, Ajax entered the semi finals.
Benfica was beaten 1-0 at home, Sjaak Swart scoring the all important goal for
his club. The Lisbon club couldn’t score on their home turf, 0-0, so Ajax
advanced into the final. Ajax had the advantage to play the final in Rotterdam,
against Internazionale Milan. It was Johan Cruyff’s best performance in a
Cup final, scoring both goals in a well deserved 2-0 victory.

Ajax (72)

9

7

2

0

16

14-3

88,8%

2 Internazionale Milan (Italy), 1963-64

After a few
free-scoring seasons (the last four winners before 1964 scored a total of 113 goals), it
was disappointing that Internazionale Milan had another approach: defense
before attack. Ans it worked: during the first three matches (Everton 0-0 and 1-0, and AS
Monaco 1-0) they didn’t concede a goal. Their overall record this year is
pretty impressive, although the opponents (Partizan Belgrade and Borussia
Dortmund) weren’t really first class. Dortmund did take a point from the
Italians, holding them at 2-2 in their home match. The other finalist was, Real Madrid. With
Tarcisio Burgnich, Giacinto Facchetti and Sandro Mazzola (two goals) as their most important players,
Internazionale beat the Spaniards 3-1.

Internazionale (64)

9

7

2

0

16

16-5

88,8%

1 Liverpool (England), 1983-84

The best
campaign of 36 years was, surprisingly, completed by Liverpool in 1984.
Their first two wins in 1977 and 1978 were not that special, the third in 1981 was very good, and during the 1983-84 tournament
Liverpool did something extraordinary. First they beat Danish side Odense BK
with ease (1-0 and 5-0), then Atletic Bilbao nearly kicked them out, after
holding on to a 0-0 at Anfield. In Bilbao Ian Rush scored the only goal of the match, getting Liverpool into the
quarter finals. Again Rush won the home match for Liverpool against Benfica
(1-0), in Lisbon the Portugese had no chance at all (4-1). Rumanian champion
Dinamo Bucuresti was a difficult opponent in the semifinal, although Liverpool
won both matches (1-0 and 2-1). So Liverpool spilled just one point on their
road to the final. The final was played in the Olympic Stadium in Rome,
Liverpools opponent was the home team, AS Roma. It stayed 0-0 for 120 minutes. Then Bruno
Conti and Francesco Graziani missed penalties for Roma, Phil Neal, Graeme
Souness, Ian Rush and Alan Kennedy scored for Liverpool and the cup went to England, again.